Freedom
by amacma
Summary: Resuming "Truth"- Jack and Audrey are on the run to start a new life. Rated T for violence/torture. Disclaimer: I do not own 24 or it's characters.
1. Silence

_My dear readers, this story resumes my other fanfics - Fallout and Truth.  
What previously happened: The country is at war on american soil. Jack decided to run away from his duties and took Audrey with him, although she got married. Her new husband shot him badly, but they got away. _

_._

**Silence**  
10:15 pm LT  
Tuesday, 16th of October, 2018

* * *

"Here. That should make it better." She took the blanket and covered him up to his shoulders with it. Cold sweat was on his forehead. He was freezing and sweating at the same time. But the fever hadn't gotten any worse. It was still there, but had stopped to rise.

He was tired, though he hadn't done anything but to lie in bed. If he didn't move too much, the wounds on his back almost didn't hurt any more.  
He still felt cold. The blanket made it better, but couldn't stop him from shivering.

She lay down next to him and also slid beneath the blanket. She grabbed his hands and kept them firmly in hers. They lay face to face, looking into each other's eyes.

"Better?", she asked.

He slightly nodded his head. "Yes. Thank you."

She smiled and slid a bit closer.

He leant back into the pillow. "I love you, do you know that?", he asked her, eyes closed. He felt her come closer, and she gave him a tender kiss onto his lips.

"Yes, I do.", she answered.

She was such an amazing woman. Every day, he loved her more. She was taking care of him, in a way he had never thought anyone would take care of somebody else. She had done really everything for him during the past weeks. He wouldn't still be alive if it hadn't been for her.

"I never want you to go away.", he silently murmured and held her hands tight.

She smiled and looked at him, lying there with closed eyes. "I won't. Ever.", she answered, placing a soft kiss at his cheek. He hadn't shaved in days. His beard had started to grow and tickled her lips. She loved it. She loved to see his hair grow again, to make him look less like someone from the military. Everything of that made it easier for her to forget what he had had to go through during the past weeks.

"Promise me."

"I promise. I won't ever leave.", she whispered into his ear and then bent down to give him a kiss.

It tasted like heaven.

Some endless moments later they parted.

He opened his eyes and saw her face just an inch away from his. She was so beautiful. He looked into her eyes.  
"Marry me.", he said.

She was thunderstruck. "What?", she gasped for air.

"Marry me.", he said again. "I'm not joking."

She was so caught by surprise that she didn't know what to answer. "You can't be serious….", she began, "… how do you want to do that, huh? I _am_ married. We're on the run. How do you…"

"It's just a question.", he interrupted her. "Forget about anything else." He took a deep breath and looked deeply into her eyes. He desperately needed to keep on to this dream. "Would you marry me? If we could?", he silently asked her again.

She didn't need time to think about the answer. "Yes.", she answered. "I would." As she looked into his eyes she knew that they'd never get the chance to. They would never have a normal life. They would never get a chance to get married. But if… she'd do it. "Right away.", she added.

He weakly smiled at her. "You're all I have.", he spoke under his breath. He would have loved to hold her and never let her go, just to get sure that she wouldn't ever leave. But he was way too weak to move. "Please don't leave me.", he whispered, as the tiredness got the better of him.

She slid closer and put her arms around him, always using caution that she'd not hurt him. She kissed his forehead and stroked over his hair. "I'm right here.", she silently said and held him close.  
She blew out the candle at the bedside table and then they lay in the darkness.

It frightened her.

Though she had him here, she knew that he could do nothing for her. He wasn't even able to get up without her help. She loved to be there for him, but lying in the darkness, she always started to remember the dreadful position they were in. They were hiding. They were nearly broke. She couldn't even afford to buy all the things they'd so badly need to get him back onto his feet again. She had started to think of selling his gun. It was of no use anyway.

"Sweetheart, is everything alright?", he asked her, eyes closed. It was almost like he could sense her bad thoughts.

She cleared her throat and swallowed down the fear. "Yeah, everything is alright.", she lied. "Sleep well."

"You too. I love you.", he answered sleepily.

She held him close, trying to bridge that divide between their dreams and their actual life.  
And then she lay in the darkness again, surrounded by a threatening silence.

.

* * *

_I'll apologize in advance, that this time I won't be able to update so quickly. But I've got a thousand pieces of storylines in my head which I need to get out now... can't wait... _

_So, this is the "bad end" to Truth, for those of you who demanded of me to write a good and a bad ending... I simpy love the bad endings more!_

_Enjoy the story!  
amacma_


	2. Alert

**Alert**  
09:44 am LT  
Wednesday, 17th of October, 2018

* * *

A major battle had been won. Nearly all of the staff members were celebrating.

But James Heller was not.

He sat in his office chair, alone in the room and watched the rest of the staff on the outside. There he saw the door to the office, which had been Audrey's, long ago.

He missed her, more than he would have ever admitted. She had been gone for ten days by now, along with Bauer. As he thought back to remember the evening when he had met this man for the last time he wished he had treated him differently. He should have taken him in custody- everything would have turned out differently.

Heller took the family picture from his desk to have a closer look at it. It showed him, Audrey and her husband Miles. They had looked so happy, only a year ago.

"Mr. Secretary?"

Heller looked up. Somebody had appeared at his open door, out of the nowhere. Fighting his inner voice – which kept telling him that he actually wanted to be alone right now – he stood up and told the other to come in. "What can I do for you?", he asked, while he discretely put the family photo into the uppermost drawer of his desk.

"Sir, my name is Colonel Tusker, Military Intelligence division."

They shook hands.

"Please, have a seat." Heller went back to his chair, too. He still knew Tusker. Audrey had been working under Tusker before she had disappeared. "Is it something about my daughter?"

Tusker shook his head no. "No, Sir. You… placed an alert on one of my officers. Captain Bauer."

Heller's muscles tensed up as he heard that name. "Yes. Do you have news about him?"

"Yes." Tusker put a file down in front of Heller. "Maybe you heard about a shooting in front of the main railway station here in DC, about ten days ago.", he began.

Heller opened up the file. "No. There were so many gunfights between civilians around here that I don't remember any particular one."

"Of course, Sir. We also didn't pay that much attention, but our men took some pieces of evidence and we found something.", Tusker sighed.

Heller looked up, curiously.

"Captain Bauer…", Tusker began, "was one of the persons involved into this gunfight. We found his blood on the pavement. Then we had a look at the CCTV cameras in the area. The pictures aren't really good since only some old analog devices are working….", he hesitatingly said and leant over the table to turn the pages of the file, until they both saw a black and white photograph of three persons, standing on the sidewalk, caught between a concrete wall and a row of parked cars. A man was threatening a couple with his gun.

"Our sources identified this man as Captain Bauer.", Tusker said and sat down again.

Heller simply starred at the picture, unable to say a word. He knew who the other two persons were. Audrey. Threatened by her husband. Jack was protectively standing in front of her. He leaved through the pages and found a series of pictures, showing the following seconds of what had happened. Audrey had ripped herself free from Jack's grab, had taken his weapon to fire at Miles. But Miles had been in the better position to shoot first.

Fearing the worst- that she had gotten hurt – Heller turned the pages even faster to find Jack ripping her down to the ground. The pictures showed nothing more. On the last one of them he could see Jack lying on the ground, Audrey too.

Heller looked up, straight into Tusker's eyes. "Tell me how this continued.", he ordered, his voice shaky.

The Colonel took a deep breath. "They got out of the field of view of this camera. The troops on site reported that they put the attacker to flight after a short chase. It seems like a car came by and took Captain Bauer and the woman away before they came back to the site."

"Hostile?" His eyes narrowed.

"We are not sure. Could be."

Heller got angry, taken by a sudden rush of feelings. "COULD BE?", he roared, "What kind of Military Intelligence is this?" He smashed the file back onto his table and stood up. "This is ten days ago and I learn this NOW?"

Colonel Tusker stayed silent. He knew very well why the Secretary was this kind of stirred. "This evidence was found after a DNA analysis. Our current state situation does not allow for any faster analysis of random cases. Ten days is a standard time for this, Sir." He looked after Heller, who had slowly gone over to one of the large windows of his office. "Sir, I came here personally to show you this for a reason. The official channels could not identify the woman and the shooter up to now. I could." Audrey. He would never forget this classy, intelligent and strong woman, who had been in his department and who had done her job so perfectly.

Heller took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and stayed for a moment. He could feel the cold air around the window, almost like the coldness would radiate off the cold window panes, right into his face. A sudden shudder felt like it was turning his stomach.  
"What are your further intentions?", he asked Tusker without turning around.

The Colonel stood up and took the file along. "Nothing up to now. Standard procedure would be to place a search warrant on Captain Bauer, but this was already done after his disappearance. I fear… that this action may have been hostile…", he hesitatingly asked, "Sir, did you get into any contact with someone about this? Was this a kidnapping and they… contacted you maybe?"

Heller grid his teeth. "No. Absolutely no.", he answered. _I wished it would be that way,_ he said to himself. Then he would have at least an enemy to defend, instead of a ghost.

"How long has she been gone?"

"Twelve days by now.", Heller said.

"You didn't report Audrey missing.", Colonel Tusker didn't let loose. "Why?"

This time James Heller turned around to him. "Why should I have?", he directly asked the officer. "I always knew that she was gone with Bauer. There's no sense in reporting her missing. This man is way too good at hiding."

"Sir, we have to consider the option that Bauer didn't even make it.", Tusker replied, harshly, almost making it sound like an accusation. He opened the file at it's last pages, showing a picture of a pool of blood at the site. It had been taken by the soldiers short after the shooting.

Heller took the picture and watched it closely. "Is all of this Bauer's blood?"

Tusker nodded. "Yes. They took a lot of samples. There was no other DNA. I checked in the database. Audrey is in there- if she had lost any… blood there, we would have found it. I like to consider her unharmed."

Heller gave him back the file. "Thank god.", he murmured.

Tusker gave him a few seconds to reconsider, before he asked, "Sir, what shall we do? Shall we place a missing person report on her, finally?"

Heller slowly sat down at his table, resting his chin on his hands. "Yes, do it. Can you leave the file here?"

Tusker put it right onto the table, in front of him. "Of course, Sir. Is there anything else I can do?"

Heller shook his head no. "Not at the moment, Colonel. I'd like to review the situation with my consultants… I'll give you a call in a few hours."

"Alright Sir. Goodbye Sir."

Heller didn't even realize how Tusker left, or how he closed the door behind him. He found himself sitting in a silent, lonely office. For the first time in years he hoped for Jack Bauer to be alive.


End file.
